It’s what West calls “Megachange.” That’s the name of his new book, published just weeks before the election.

He’s predicting that surprises like Trump’s victory, Brexit and the forces behind them — including immigration crises and job losses — aren’t just flukes of recent years.

West says they’re signs of the greatest global disruption since post-World War II.

I decided to call West in part because he was a longtime Rhode Island guy — 26 years at Brown teaching public policy. Media folks here turned to him often as a political commentator, and now he’s getting the same nationally as a vice president at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

I began with a question I’ve been thinking about since Trump won.

What in the world, I asked West, is going on out there?

The standard answer is white working-class anxiety. But West is a rare voice that explains it through historical trends.

“We’re living in an unusual period where big stuff is happening on a regular basis,” said West.

The Great Recession. Middle East tumult. The rise of ISIS. Then Brexit. And now Trump.

He has an eye-opening take on a key reason behind it all: That cellphone in your hand — a least as a symbol of something larger.

“Technology,” says West, “has destabilized both the political process and the economy.”

Almost every sector has been altered by it — banking, communications, health care, transportation, manufacturing.

He gave one small example. Restaurants have begun to supplement waitstaff with tablets that you use to place your order. Indeed, just the other day, I walked into a doctor’s office and a sign told me to check in at a digital kiosk — one less receptionist.

West says multiply that millions of times and it’s a big reason jobs are down.

The working class, he adds, has paid the highest price. And it’s about to get worse.

His next book is on the rise of robots — from factory machines to self-driving cars. By 2020 or so, West says, such technology will cause an accelatored shift in the work force, with an astonishing 20 percent of current jobs no longer needed.

West points to the time around 1900, with millions moving from farms to factories, as similarly disruptive to today's changes. Another big American upheaval was after World War II, as both global alliances and Europe were shattered.

The difference, says West, is that during both these disruptions, American politicians worked together to help people adapt to a changing world. But today, he says, politics is so hyper-polarized that Washington has failed — which is why many wanted big change at the top.

That's how Trump fits into all this.

“He was brilliant at understanding people’s anxieties,” said West. And at marketing himself as the only change agent.

West feels that Trump, backed by a Republican Congress, will make huge moves.

“I think people will be shocked at how much change there will be in 2017. It’s going to be like FDR’s first 100 days,” he said, referring to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Tax cuts. Deregulation. Tougher foreign policy. Obamacare changes.

West says he’s an optimist who feels politicians will ultimately get past hyper-partisanship to steer America through the mega-change.